Bashkortostan Blacks Out Pro-Kremlin TV
By Andrei Zolotov Jr.
Staff Writer
Who is more fun to watch Sunday night on television - RTR's
bearded political commentator Nikolai Svanidze or beefy Silvester
Stallone? ORT's vicious Sergei Dorenko or the 1970s heartthrob
Richard Chamberlain?
In open defiance of the Kremlin's authority - with potentially broad
ramifications for the electoral process and Russia's federal integrity
- Bashkortostan's leadership decided Saturday that the republic's
people should not be subject to "dirty political tricks" from the two
federal state television channels.
The republic's State Council, or parliament, ordered the local state
television company to black out ORT and RTR during their big hit
Sunday political shows, which regularly run expos?s of
Fatherland-All Russia leaders Yevgeny Primakov and Yury
Luzhkov.
The decision was backed by Bashkortostan's authoritarian
president, Murtaza Rakhimov, who is an active member of the
Fatherland-All Russia electoral bloc.
It is the first time a Russian region has blacked out a federal
television channel.
Instead of the political talk shows, the Bashkortostan State TV
and Radio Company broadcast "Cobra" on RTR starring Stallone
and "The Lost Daughter" series with Chamberlain on ORT.
The republic's parliament said its decision was motivated by
"responsibility for the fate of democracy" in Russia and was aimed
at "preventing the destabilization of the situation in Russia and the
Bashkortostan Republic." Federal bodies, it said in the resolution
passed Saturday, have failed to take "adequate" measures to
guarantee equal rights for electoral blocs in the mass media.
The parliament went further and threatened that if the "violations of
electoral law" in Moscow continue, it will have to consider
whether to hold State Duma elections on the territory of
Bashkortostan at all.
Rakhimov was present in parliament when the resolution was
passed and spoke in its favor, his spokesman Viktor Skvortsov
said Monday by telephone from the republic's capital, Ufa.
"The very tone of the programs, their quite definite emotional
context instigate enmity toward certain political blocs and certain
candidates," Skvortsov said.
Although the two programs - particularly Dorenko's show on
ORT - have been under harsh criticism for their strong
pro-Kremlin, anti-Fatherland stance, officials and observers in
Moscow condemned Bashkortostan's action as illegal and said it
threatens Russian federalism.
They fear it could create a dangerous precedent for other regional
leaders, many of them members of various electoral blocs, who
could now be tempted to cut federal television programming - one
of the few things that tie Russia together - to their political liking.
The problem is that there is little Moscow can do about it,
especially during an election season, when the federal center needs
the support of powerful regional leaders more than ever.
Alexander Veshnyakov, chairman of the Central Election
Commission and one of ORT's critics, said Bashkortostan was out
of line.
"Any, even a good-intentioned, desire to instill order in an illegal
way only worsens the situation," he said in televised comments.
Objectionable programs should be fought through legal means,
Veshnyakov said.
Luzhkov has sued ORT over Dorenko's program, and the
Moscow city court is to hear the case Wednesday.
Press Minister Mikhail Lesin said the decision of the republic's
parliament was "absolutely contrary" to Russia's Constitution -
under which communications are a federal prerogative - and its
laws on mass media and elections. It violated the freedom of the
press as well as the licensing agreement and contracts between the
national channels and local transmitters, who are not allowed to
interfere with the channels' programming, Lesin said.
"We hope this decision was made emotionally and will be
reversed," he said in a telephone interview Monday evening.
Lesin said Rakhimov did not return his telephone calls Monday
and the Bashkortostan parliament's speaker, Konstantin
Tolkachyov, rebuffed him by saying that since Bashkortostan is a
"sovereign" republic, it can choose where and when to apply
federal laws.
Rakhimov was quoted by Itar-Tass earlier Monday as saying the
parliament's decision was "absolutely right." But he left some space
for a compromise by saying that its legality should be "sorted out in
Moscow."
Lesin, who is usually quite outspoken, chose his words carefully in
describing the situation and said his ministry will "take a several
days' pause" to assess the situation.
On his Sunday program, Dorenko accused Bashkortostan's
leadership of "separatism" and described the decision as a "wild
practice of distrust of one's own people."
Andrei Richter, director of the Center for Law and Media at
Moscow State University, said although he is sympathetic to
Rakhimov's view of the ORT and RTR programs, the republic's
decision was a "serious violation of the law."
It sets a dangerous precedent, giving each governor the right to
"show only those programs that he likes," Richter said.
But Moscow's levers are indeed weak, he said, particularly given
the dual allegiance of local state television companies: They report
both to Moscow and to the local government.
The Press Ministry could punish Bashkortostan's TV and Radio
Company managers for pulling the plug, but they will say they
report to their republic's leadership first and to Moscow second,
Richter said. "Unfortunately, the trend is that what the governor
says is the law," he said.
Nikolai Petrov, an expert on Russian regional politics with the
Moscow Carnegie Center, said the Bashkortostan move is
indicative of the general situation in the country, when already
weak vertical ties between Moscow and the regions are growing
even weaker in an election climate.
"Let's see how swiftly and toughly the center will react in a
situation when regional leaders have even greater authority than
usual," Petrov said. But he predicted that most likely some sort of
compromise will eventually be found.
"Political bargaining is under way, and the positions of the center
are weaker than usual," he said.
n At the urging of the federal Audit Chamber, the State Duma
voted Friday to freeze the bank accounts of ORT. But on
Monday, two pro-government factions - LDPR and NDR - said
the vote had been falsified by the Communists.
ORT protested Friday's decision, saying in a statement it would
further complicate the already tense electoral situation. It said the
Audit Chamber is entitled to check only the use of state funds at
ORT, but the company has not received any state funds for four
years.
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Bashkir
Opposition Loses a Court Ruling
Wednesday, December 9, 1998
The legal battle over the presidential elections in June
1998 in Bashkortostan took a new turn Wednesday when the Bashkir
Supreme Court ruled that the winner, incumbent Murtaza
Rakhimov will remain President of the Republic. In July the State Duma
Deputy Aleksandr
Arinin and the director of a regional factory Marat Mirgazyamov appealed
to the Bashkortostani Supreme Court calling for a reconsideration of the
election results. Arinin and Mirgazyamov question the election results
due to numerous violations of the Russian constitution and electoral laws
by the Bashkir authorities during the election
campaign.
Now the case is likely to be tried by the Russian Supreme
Court.